Cardiff Preview

There's a bit of a chance that the return of yet another ex, JFH, will not be received too well by many Addicks this afternoon, on account of bags of money being grabbed for too little effort. Well, as we learnt last season JimmyF just doesn't do effort but one thing he does specialise in is getting annoying goals against his former clubs. And to prove the point, the only Premier goals he scored last season were against the only two other clubs in the Premiership that he's played for, Chelsea and Middlesbrough.

The question is, does he do it on purpose? Does he instinctively raise his game just to prove a point? The answer appears to be yes and although Pards has said that "He was a good player for me, he always put in an honest day's work and never caused me a problem", today he possibly will, because ominously JFH has said on the Cardiff site that he's not really worried about coming back to the Valley but has worryingly pointed out that, after three games without scoring, his wife is getting a bit upset with his bad moods and he only wants to keep her happy.......

Is There Anything Else To Worry About?

As for Cardiff, and not wishing to worry you unduly, but there's only 4 teams that have suffered a single defeat away from home this season in the fizzies and oddly enough Leicester and Cardiff are two of them. Cardiff's only away defeat was a 1-0 at Southampton last time out, while on a trip to Anfield in the 4th Round of the League Cup, they had a narrow 2-1 defeat...and this was after beating West Brom at the Hawthorns 4-2 in the previous round.

But while they appear to have raised their game in the League Cup with 3 victories their Fizzy Form has not been so good, with only 3 wins all season in those boring fizzy games. Wins at QPR and Norwich early in the season and subsequent draws at Plymouth, Barnsley and Sheff. U. have given them a reasonable away record but unlike all of our previous recent opponents that have been on a bit of a run, Cardiff have now gone 4 games without a win and have only won once, a 2-1 home win over Burnley, in the last ten Fizzy games.
As for the suggested battle, that may involve only the fans because as a team they've received only 12 yellows - we have 27 (!) - in their 14 games which is only bettered (sic) by West Brom on 11.

Who They Got Then?
Two big name forwards with a combined age of 67, as pointed out by the offfcial cafc guide, and a goalkeeper with a famous father but not a lot in between. Robbie Fowler and Hasselbaink lead the line on Tuesday in the 1-1 draw at home to Palarse and so we should expect more of the same. Cardiff have also recently signed Peter Schmeichel's son Jasper from Man. City on a months loan. On the goalscoring front, Fowler has 6 goals with JFH on 4 and Paul Parry have 3.

They may have 34 year old Trevor Sinclair in midfield although he suffered a jarred knee on Tuesday and another of Andy Reid's mates, Irishman Stephen McPhail who were together at Notts Forest 4 long years ago down there in Tier Three.

Is There Any History?
29 League games at the Valley and Cardiff have the stupefying record of 4 victories and 9 draws and 16 defeats. But they did win the last one back in March '85 by no less than 4-1. It was our worst home defeat of the season and at the end of it Cardiff were relegated.

And as Lindsay McCombie has pointed out "If history is anything to go by, there could well be plenty of goals flying in on Saturday. Either side has scored five goals (six on one occasion) in seven previous clashes between the teams."

The Addicks
A home game would usually mean a 4-4-2 for Pards but he's already been quoted singing the praises of the recently adopted five man midfield. "It gives you a strong base to attack from. I know the system has some flaws, but if you look to the positives of that system, then it can create more chances for you and that's what we've done."

But probably the key phase he has used has been "In the last two games we've created more chances that we have in the previous four." So expect a similar formation today then but with the return of Jose Semedo to midfield in place of Therry Racon. Twenty-Two year old Semedo, although called the "brainless one" by the Guardian last week thanks to his sending-off and his place of birth being the same town as Jose Mourinho, there can be no doubt that, bought on a free transfer from Sporting Lisbon, he's been a quiet relevation this season and one of Pardew's success stories.

Team: Weaver; Mills, Sodje, Fortune, Basey; Sam, Semedo, ZiZi, Reid, Thomas; Iwelumo.

Prediction 6-0....
With our performances this week and the anticipated determination that there's going to be to put the QPR result behind us there can be only one result today. And bearing in mind Cardiff's recent form with 1 win in 10 and the history of this game, there's going to be goals. Gearing up to improve our goal difference and with an offensive 4-5-1 formation there's no doubt in my mind that someone is due for a hammering and who better suited than Jimmy and Co. Maybe we wouldn't see the 8 goals predicted on Thursday but its a 6-0 for me.....